About Panda Pest Ant Control
With our 15 years of experience in the pest control industry, it’s safe to say our team of local exterminators has encountered a slew of species that continually infiltrate properties across Arizona. Whether native or invasive, we’ve seen it all, and we can attest to the fact that ants are one of the mainstays all year round.
These small and intelligent insects can be found almost everywhere, especially when a steady source of food and moisture is nearby. While it can be hard for the untrained eye to differentiate them, there are reportedly over 350 types of ants in the state, many of which are common within Queen Creek. They differ in size, skin tone, and habits, and because of these differences, a unique approach is also required in order to locate and eliminate the present population properly.
By partnering with Panda Pest Control for ant control in Queen Creek, AZ, you won’t have to concern yourself with the nitty-gritty details. Our team of professionals can promptly identify what kind you have in your vicinity so that we can carefully yet swiftly address the infestation. Through our tried-and-true methods, we can help bring back peace and relaxation into your day-to-day routine, ensuring that no supplies are contaminated, no individual is stung or bitten, and no unsightly mounds or structural damage occur.
Fire Ants
Physical Appearance: Fire ants are mostly red, brown, or copper, with a darker abdomen. They are tiny insects with worker ants growing to a maximum of 6mm long, while the queens grow to be 25mm long. They also have stingers, round heads, and an armored midsection.
Habits: This type of ant is one of the most aggressive kinds we’ve encountered in all our years as ant control experts. They use their stingers to inject venom that can often cause redness, itching, swelling, blisters, and pustules.
Fire ants are also known for building mounds of soil near wetlands and gardens. These are considered their above-ground nursery to help in regulating the temperature and moisture levels in their underground colony.
Reproduction: One fire ant nest can have anywhere between a thousand to ten thousand ants in a single year. Within three years, it can have over 100,000 individual ants, all categorized into three social classes: queens, workers, and alates (winged ants).
New fire ant queens typically lay up to 20 eggs daily, while mature queens can lay up to 5,000 eggs every day. These hatch within a week and turn into larvae. After another two weeks, they turn into pupae before becoming adult ants. Their position within the community will depend on whether or not they were fertilized as eggs and how much food they received as larvae.
Primary Problem: This species poses a serious threat to people, pets, livestock, and even the environment. Health-wise, their stings are very agitating, causing a domino effect of problems for those hypersensitive to the venom. This may include chest pains, nausea, and, in rare occurrences, coma. In terms of habitats, they can kill plants, damage yard equipment, destroy irrigation systems, and infiltrate food crops. All of these and more can be efficiently prevented through our ant control for indoor and outdoor areas.
Tips for Prevention: Fire ants are attracted to sweet, greasy food, including food waste. Ensuring that proper storage habits are in place can help deter them. With the help of professional technicians, your property can also be properly sealed off to guarantee that they can’t enter your premises in the near future.
Crazy Ants
Physical Appearance: In this colony, worker ants are typically 3mm long, while reproductive ants are much larger and also have wings to assist in colony expansion throughout different areas. They are dark brown or black with a faint blue luminosity. They have long, coarse hair, lengthy legs, and stretched-out antennae. Their bodies are smooth and glossy, with extra shiny heads.
Habits: In contrast to other species, crazy ants tend to dash erratically, which is why they were coined with the unfortunate nickname. They move rapidly, ending up in random places when in search of food. They thrive both in interiors and exteriors, in dry and wet areas, and they feed on dead and living insects.
While they prefer the soil in potted plants, they can also hide away in mulch, garbage, rotten wood, tree cavities, under rocks, and beneath man-made structures. Because of their ability to adapt quickly to their environment and available resources, they can be very difficult to control without the help of a professional ant control company.
Reproduction: A queen crazy ant can lay thousands of eggs in her lifetime, which is typically between 10 to 30 years. The queen eggs incubate for 20 days, turn into larvae, and then grow into adult queen ants after a month. Worker eggs, on the other hand, take only 20 days to grow into adults and live for only 80 days.
Some types of crazy ants have a unique reproductive process wherein males typically develop two distinct sets of DNA, one from each ant parent. This allows them to have an expansive genetic diversity per colony.
Primary Problem: Because they favor loose and open-structured soil, crazy ants tend to swarm to potted plants, mulch, and garbage. This can make your landscaping vulnerable to damage. They also eat native insects, which lessens the population of helpful bugs that play an important role in growing your garden.
Tips for Prevention: Crazy ants are especially attracted to honeydew, chocolate, and other sweet things. Keeping these stored properly and your trash bins emptied out regularly can help prevent them from frequenting your space. Queen Creek ant control experts can also install sealant in cracks and gaps, locate any leaks, and apply a variety of repellants for steady protection.
Pavement Ants
Physical Appearance: Pavement ants are your typical dark brown to black bodied insects that only grow to a little less than ¼ of an inch. They have long antennae that are segmented and bent in the middle. They have two distinct nodes, lines on their head, and hair on their body.
Habits: True to their namesake, pavement ants love to spend their time either within or near concrete surfaces such as sidewalks, driveways, patios, and other foundations. They nest along the edges or inside the cracks and rarely stay in areas with a lot of vegetation.
This species is also known to lay trails, helping fellow pavement ants locate food sources up to 9 meters from their nest. They eat almost anything, from insects and fruits to seeds and meat, even feasting on nuts and cheese if they gain access to them.
Reproduction: Winged males and females mate in the spring or summer seasons. The female stores the sperm to fertilize the eggs in batches, lasting her the rest of her life, which typically stretches to five years. She then finds a safe area, discards her wings, and builds her colony as the queen.
The queen pavement ant in each colony lays anywhere between 5 to 40 eggs per day. These eggs hatch within two weeks and turn to larvae before emerging as pupae, until finally growing into adult pavement ants. They only have a single queen and thousands of workers, all foraging for food and protecting the eggs.
Primary Problem: Because they love to spend time near human structures, they can easily get into our food supply, contaminate our pantry, and spread germs. They can carry bacteria that often cause foodborne diseases. While not actively reported as a worldwide issue, it is a common occurrence for pavement ants to infect food without people realizing it.
Tips for Prevention: It is important to clean up food scraps and spills promptly to counter their scavenging behavior. Scheduling regular inspections from an ant removal company is the most ideal course of action to effectively prevent pavement ants and other species from infiltrating your vicinity.
Carpenter Ants
Physical Appearance: This species is the largest in the country, with the typical worker ant growing to 1/2 inch long and queens expanding up to a full inch in length. Their body is usually black or dark red, with three main regions. Their antennae are sharply bent and vary in length depending on caste.
Habits: Carpenter ants are wood-destroying, moisture-loving ants that prefer to nest in water-damaged wood. This can include trees, stumps, logs, and dead branches. If their colony is expanding at a rapid rate, they can often build satellite nests in dry wood, but only to store worker ants or pupae.
Their diet consists of sweet substances such as pollen, nectar, fruits, and insects. Once they find a steady supply of nourishment, they connect foraging trails so that others can easily find their way to and from the food source from their nest.
Reproduction: Similar to the pavement ant, a winged male and female carpenter ant mate in warmer months, and the female stores the sperm to establish her own colony. She finds decaying or moist wood and seeks shelter in one of the grooves or cavities. There, she lays her eggs in batches, usually not exceeding 20 eggs at a time. However, the total number of eggs she can discharge can reach thousands per day. With a steady pace, a stable colony can be created in at least three full years.
Primary Problem: The main issue that carpenter ants provoke is the destruction of wooden surfaces. This not only affects trees but also furniture and the building itself, is the foundation is moist enough. This can encourage decay and weakening of structures, putting the property and everyone around it at risk.
Tips for Prevention: To prevent carpenter ants from invading your area, keep the level of moisture to a minimum. This can include ventilating damp areas, repairing any leaks, getting rid of or properly storing damp wood, and so on. Professionals offering dependable ant extermination services can take care of installing exclusion tactics and educating property owners in best practices to keep them away long-term.
Odorous House Ants
Physical Appearance: Queens in an odorous house ant nest can reach up to ½ inch long, while worker ants only grow to be an average of 3mm long. This species is dark brown to black in color, has an unevenly shaped thorax, and has a slit-like opening under their abdomen towards the tip of their body.
Habits: An odorous house ant colony could have a single or many queens. When in forests, their colonies tend to be smaller, which only requires one ruler. However, in urban settings, there could be thousands of workers in a given colony, requiring more queens to rule over each nest.
They are very versatile and able to thrive indoors and outdoors. However, they prefer nesting inside due to the warmer climate and proximity to moisture. Some areas where you may find budding nests include the voids within walls, areas near hot water pipes, crevices within close range of water heaters, and similar spaces.
Reproduction: Reproductive ants (winged females and males) would swarm outside their present nest and mate, and the females go off to find a suitable spot to establish her new colony. This takes place in warmer months, such as spring or summer. The queen lays eggs at a gradual pace, often only laying two daily. However, depending on the climate, this can go up to thirty on an extra productive day.
Primary Problem: They aren’t named odorous for no reason. When crushed, these invaders can emit a strong, foul odor that is similar to rotten coconuts or even blue cheese. This can pose a problem when there is a buildup within indoor nests, creating an unpleasant environment. Apart from this, they can also contaminate food supplies, especially the moist or sweet kinds.
Tips for Prevention: The principal elements attracting odorous house ants are moisture and sweets. By reducing their access, your home or business has better chances of remaining ant-free. However, this can be especially difficult in spaces people frequent, which is why we recommend partnering with ant control in Queen Creek, AZ, professionals for a regular checkup, removal, and treatment of any ant-infested areas.
How can our Queen Creek, AZ ant removal experts serve you?
FAQs
What harm can ants cause?
Ants are known to swarm over leftovers and spilled liquid, which can lead to food contamination if they touch clean stocks. They can also cause health risks through their bites and stings, as these can trigger allergic reactions and turn into blisters. Lastly, they can cause physical damage by tunneling through wooden structures, loosening the sand in foundations, and eating through electrical wires.
Can ants spread bacteria?
These tiny insects are capable of carrying bacteria that they acquired by foraging through soil, dirty floors, trash bins, and other contaminated surfaces. They can then transmit this by crawling on top of cutting boards, dishes, skin, medical devices, and other clean areas. Once tainted, this can cause foodborne illness and adverse health effects.
Do all ants bite?
Yes, ants can either bite using the pinchers on their head or sting using the stingers on their tips. Only female ants have stingers, which inject venom that triggers a burning sensation and allergic reactions. All species can bite or sting, but some are too small for their punctures to inflict much harm.
What attracts ants?
All ants are most attracted to food, particularly the kind with a lot of sugar content or those high in fat. Some species are attracted to the protein in meat. Ants are also attracted to water or moisture, which is why they frequent areas near pipes, faucets, hoses, or ponds. Lastly, they are attracted to clutter as this often signifies human activity with food sources nearby.
How do ants get inside homes?
Even the biggest ant species has a maximum length of only 1 inch. They are very small compared to other pests, which is why they can easily sneak through cracks, gaps, and openings around homes and buildings.
What do ants eat?
Ants eat both plants and animals, aside from leftover human food. They survive on leaves, fungus, nectar, fruits, vegetables, sugar, insects, lizards, insect eggs, meat, and water. They are most attracted to food sources that are sweet and/ or greasy, so items with a high sugar or fat content are on the top of their target list.
Is seeing a trail of ants an indication of an infestation?
Yes, a trail of ants is a strong indication of an infestation nearby. These trails are how ants guide other members to a food source they’ve discovered, encouraging other worker ants to gather more in order to feed everyone. This also signifies that their colony is quite large, requiring recruitment to assist in foraging.
Does seeing ants mean my house is dirty?
No, for as long as your property contains ample food sources, they can find their way to you – it won’t matter if it is clean or dirty. Perhaps the only advantage of a cleaner home would be proper storage of supplies and lower chances of leftovers or spills being unaddressed.
Are ants easy to get rid of?
While it may be simple to remove a few ants from your countertop, getting rid of the root source of these ants is very difficult. Their colonies can consist of thousands of worker ants. This means eliminating the entirety of their population and stunting their reproductive cycle would require professional ant extermination services.
When are ants most active?
Ants are active throughout all months of the year, but their peak period is during warmer days as they can actively forage for food in comfortable temperatures. This means you can see more of them between the months of March to August as spring and summer are in full swing.
The Ant Problem
Whether you have rats, mice, gophers, squirrels, or other types of rodents taking shelter in your home or business, it’s time to get professional technicians in and make your space safe again. While they tend to keep out of sight, this does not mean the silent damage won’t add up eventually. From chewed wood, broken electrical wires, contaminated food and water, to the bacteria that is infiltrating your air, rodents can cause multiple issues. Contact us today for expert rodent control in Queen Creek!
